Let's make India a healthier place

The growing number of juice bars and lounges in the country surely illustrates the success of the concept. One of the known names, Juice Lounge is also very well accepted by the consumers. It’s Founder and Partner; Niti Agrawal spoke to Ekta Sharma Verma on the challenges as well as the expansion plans of her brand.

Tell us about your brand’s strategies to beat the fierce competition?

Owned by Vertigo India Food & Beverages, Juice Lounge is one of the renowned juice bars in India and one of the most profitable franchise business opportunities. After seeing the success of Juice Lounge abroad in Doha and Maldives and with 50+ operational stores, we have plans to venture in the other Asian countries as well.  Vertigo India Food & Beverages has done exclusive association with investors abroad to grow the brand ‘Juice Lounge’ in the Middle East and the Far East Asia. As of now we do not see any major competition from foreign brands as we have penetrated the market well so we have first mover advantage in most of the states of India.

Is India a potential market for your business, with so many International brands already coming in?

Yes definitely, India is a potential market for our kind of business. Our business concept is unique. I personally feel that the F & B business has a great potential. As compared to other International brands, our investment is less and returns are higher, that’s why in a shorter span of time we are present in more than 30+ cities.

Any challenges?

We provide onsite training to all our franchisees. We are also providing them manuals, which give them every minute details of our business and help them in day-to-day running of our outlets. We also have onsite training of the entire staff with our exclusive chefs and managers for the initial opening period. So we nearly eliminate most of the challenges which are faced by a franchisee in F & B Industry. Our entire team is dedicated and trained to overcome any challenges faced by our franchisee. Support is provided right from finalising a place to its designing, fabrication, installation, and training.

We did face challenges in finding skilled staff at entry levels. We have overcome the issue with onsite training. We had faced challenges about the product quality in smaller cities whereas we have now standardised all our products so the customer’s need not worry about the quality of the products.

Why have you decided to franchise your concept?

Our business has a lot of potential as everyone is becoming more health centric. Through this business we can make a healthier India. There is a good market for us to expand and grow in India as it is a developing country. The concept clicked and seeing the success we had few inquiries by way of word of mouth to start the concept in different cities. After evaluating the proposal, we chose the route of franchising as it would help the brand grow faster. The returns for the investment were very lucrative which helps us to grow even faster. We have also customised the concept as per the taste of the Indian consumers. We have kiosk, OTC and lounge model. They cater to different needs as per the location.

Which city do you plan to enter now?

Our company is more focused on south India for new outlets. We are opening 10+ stores in many cities like Ghaziabad, Amritsar, Kolhapur, Thiruvannamalai, Neyveli in the coming months.

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